Vitalii Markiv

On July 25, 2019, During the phone conversation with Italian PM Giuseppe Conte Ukrainian President Zelenskiy stressed an importance of unbiased investigation of the Andrea Rocchelli death and offered legal assistance from Ukraine in conducting a thorough joint examination of the circumstances of Rocchelli's death.

Markiv is а suspect in the killing Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli near the city of Sloviansk, Donetsk region, in May 2014 and was arrested in Italy, June 30, 2017. He is currently in prison in Pavia.

On July 4, 2017 Ukrainian activists organized a protest action against the detention Vitalii Markiv near the Embassy of Italy in Kyiv.

In 2014 Markiv joined the National Guard of Ukraine and took part in the Battles for Sloviansk. He is a deputy platoon commander in the General Serhiy Kulchytsky Battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine.

On July 12, a court in the Italian city of Pavia sentenced Markiv to 24 years in prison for involvement in the death of Italian photo reporter Andrea Rocchelli in the Donbass region in May 2014.

Vitalii Mykhailovych Markiv (Ukrainian: Віталій Михайлович Марків , born August 16, 1989, Khorostkiv) is a former Ukrainian soldier of the General Serhiy Kulchytsky Battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine. He was convicted by an Italian court to 24 years of imprisonment for allegedly directing a mortar fire that killed Russian dissident and journalist Andrei Mironov and Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli near the city of Sloviansk.

Vitalii Markiv was born on August 16, 1989 in the city of Khorostkiv of Ternopil region in West Ukraine. At the age of 16 he moved to Italy with his sister and gained Italian citizenship. He returned to Ukraine at the end of 2013 to take part in the demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine called Euromaidan.